FBI arrests Sen. Dianne Wilkerson on corruption charges

Massachusetts state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday and charged with accepting $23,500 in bribes from undercover agents she believed were local businessmen.

Massachusetts state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday and charged with accepting $23,500 in bribes from undercover agents she believed were local businessmen.
Wilkerson, the lone black member of the state Senate, was charged with attempted extortion as a public official and theft of honest services as a state senator. She faces up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines on each count.

Read the FBI affadavit

“Public service is a privilege, and voters and taxpayers expect that elected officials will do what’s right for their constituents, not what is financially best for themselves,” U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said. “The citizens of the Commonwealth deserve honest and faithful services from elected officials, uncompromised by secret payments of cash.”
Wilkerson, 53, lost the Democratic primary in September to Sonia Chang-Diaz, but was running a sticker campaign against her in the Nov. 4 election to retain the seat she has held since 1993.
Despite a number of legal and ethical charges throughout her term, Wilkerson remained popular in her Boston district and was supported in her primary bid by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Gov. Deval Patrick.
Sullivan said it was “coincidental” the complaint was filed a week before the election.
Wilkerson’s attorney, Max Stern, did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press for comment.
Sullivan said Wilkerson accepted eight payments, ranging in amounts from $500 to $10,000, during the 17-month investigation.
According to a federal criminal complaint, between June 2007 and March 2008, Wilkerson allegedly took $8,500 in cash payments from an undercover agent and a cooperating witness to help a proposed nightclub in her district, named Dejavu, get a liquor license.
She allegedly pressured the Boston License Board, Menino and the City Council on behalf of the nightclub, and delayed legislation that would have increased the salaries of members of the licensing board.
Between June and October, she allegedly accepted $15,000 in payments in exchange for helping an undercover officer posing as a businessman avoid the bidding process to develop state property in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood.
An FBI affidavit filed in court includes a series of still photographs from video recordings allegedly showing Wilkerson accepting cash.
In one photograph, Wilkerson appears to be stuffing a pile of cash under her sweater and inside her bra. In the affidavit, an FBI agent said the incident occurred on June 18, 2007, at the bar at No. 9 Park restaurant on Beacon Hill. The money was allegedly handed to Wilkerson by a cooperating witness who Wilkerson promised to help obtain the liquor license.
In one photograph, Wilkerson appears to stuff a pile of cash under her sweater and into her bra. In the affidavit, an FBI agent said Wilkerson took the money on June 18, 2007, at the bar at the No. 9 Park restaurant on Beacon Hill.
During another transaction at the Fill-A-Buster restaurant on Beacon Hill, a cooperating witness handed Wilkerson $1,000 in cash, telling her she had earned the money and should “knock yourself out.”
Wilkerson said she planned to go to the spa at Foxwoods Resort Casino that weekend.
The new charges are the latest in a string of troubles to plague the lawmaker.
On Friday, the state Bar Counsel filed a complaint against Wilkerson accusing her of lying under oath in an effort to overturn her nephew’s voluntary manslaughter conviction. The penalty could include disbarment.
In September 2005, the state attorney general and head of the state’s campaign finance office filed a lawsuit against Wilkerson, alleging she had not reported nearly $27,000 in donations and refused to explain more than $18,000 in personal reimbursements. She agreed to pay a $10,000 fine and forego about $30,000 in debts owed her to settle the allegations.
In 1998, Wilkerson resolved similar allegations of unexplained expenditures and undisclosed political action committee contributions. She and her committee agreed to pay back all unaccounted expenditures and to pay civil penalties totaling $11,500.
Wilkerson was sentenced to house arrest in December 1997 after pleading guilty to failing to pay $51,000 in federal income taxes in the early 1990s. She was suspended from practicing law for one year in 1999 because of the conviction and did not seek reinstatement.
In 2001, she also was fined $1,000 by the State Ethics Commission for failing to properly report that a bank she lobbied for as senator was paying her more than $20,000 a year as a consultant.